New Homepage Feedback Round 3

[dormantreign]

I have to say, i won't be here nearly as often now. It was a good run, but i really dislike the new design and being forced to use it. Gone to Engadget. Ill still pop by from time to time but as i said back in beta 1, I left theinquirer.net because of their "Redesign". That being said i don't really like engadgets web layout but what can i do.

 

[ohseus]

I have to turn off no script to see the articles. I'll visit elsewhere.

 

[skaz]

Not a big fan of the new layout. I prefer the original "old" layout.

 

[haplo602]

As for the advertising banners I totally agree with you. Since I use adblock now at least 30% of Toms home page is just wasted whitespace.

It really puts perspective on just how much of wasted space the "new" home page really is.

the worst part, I mistook the article "list" for an advert banner on first look so I totaly ignored it ... news, forums, empty space for blocked ads, where are the articles ? then I realised where they are.

definitely not a good layout. the original content: articles, reviews etc. should be taking the important place, not a news feed.

 

[papaswedine]

I just want to say, you guys need a iGoogle gadget for your "Latest News" section... not that I don't find your articles helpful. There's usually just more news to read 🙂

 

[andy5174]

Why are we forced to use the new style? Please give me back the old one!

 

[Kreth]

Man i dont like the new style i "loved" the way i could browse all news and categories at the same time, now i have to click each tab at the top to see if theres any new specific ones. PLEASE give me back the old style.

 

[i_am_aronman]

At first i was confused when i went onto toms today, i need some more time to get used to the new layout before i can judge though.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Don't like the new layout. It's especially annoying if I view it on my netbook. "Latest articles" on top? Shame. I'll get used to it, eventually, but the old one was totally fine.

 

[three0duster]

Looks pretty, that's about it. No links to reviews. That used to be the sole purpose of this site. Now it looks like an afterthought.

 

[farleytron]

Come on Tom's... selling us out to the iPad crowd?

Last time I checked, revising a website to work with 1024X768 resolution is like adding potholes to a road because a few people bought a slow car.

The layout sticks a giant advertisement in the middle of my screen, and the latest articles take up the rest.

The previous layout worked great, showing me if there was a new review, and at the same time giving me all the latest news stories without having to scroll on my 1366X768 screen!

 

[chaosgs]

With this many complaints I wander if they will actually listen and bring the old one back.

 

[nebun]

it's different but i like it...guess i will just have to get used to it 😉....keep up the good work....where is my hammer 😉

 

[jitpublisher]

Don't think much of this at all, hate the forum feed.

 

[gti88]

Where is the promised "Apple free" version?

 

[jathpi]

So You are no longer Toms Hardware but are now Toms Advertisements?

I understand that ads are very important, especially because you provide you content for free but the layout is extremely busy and crowded and the layout forces the eye past the articles (which are your actual unique content) to focus attention on the News and Ads.

Beyond that the forums area takes up entirely too much screen real estate. Maybe you should have collapsible sections (for useless areas like the forums area) that a user can keep closed, or allow a user to keep selected areas collapsed into a small summary areas, instead of wasting so much space on it. Obviously you couldn't do that with the Ads, but the are apparently going to be intrusive no matter what since intrusive Ads seem to be the way design standards are going.

 

[lourson]

the "Latest News" display settings are not working. If I select to display 30 Items, it will show thirty items until i refresh the page and then it goes back to 20 items, but it shows 30 as selected in the drop down box.

Using Firefox 5.0

The option doesn't even show up in IE8 nor can I log in. gives no error message or anything using IE8.

I've tested on IE8 and Chrome on WinXP and I don't have any issue to log in or use the options. Is this still a problem right now for you?

 

[MaxTesla]

I liked the old one better

 

[jpishgar]

Hey there Lobodomy and jcamel24. Whereabouts are you seeing things localized to the UK rather than where you are situated? Pounds and colo(u)rs shouldn't be showing up for you at all, as the only redirection we do is within the confines of the forums.

As for the other feedback, we appreciate your feedback and we'll continue to take steps to optimize the Tom's Hardware browsing experience over time. We understand the new layout may take a little bit of time to get used to, but we've integrated a great number of your excellent ideas from previous beta versions and we're delighted to be able to move forward towards increasing content.

As an aside, I encourage you to take the Tom's Hardware System Builder widget for a spin. You'll find quite a number of impressive builds created by users there.

 

[jpishgar]

As an aside, neither the advertisements which help pay for bandwidth costs and staff nor the site width itself have increased in any way. We're very sensitive to your feedback on this, and we're striving to keep the site as user-friendly as possible.

Very interested though in the potential localization issues that a handful of users are reporting. Please respond here or in private message with what you are seeing if you are seeing stuff not localized to your region.

 

[Lobodomy]

I just checked again and it is no longer happening. When it was happening though, it was the articles in the Latest Articles section that were directing me to the UK page.

 

[mcx]

I realise that people (like me) like what they are used to, but this isn't just a shake up of the lay-out but a change in content. The way that the content I seek (reviews and news) is now hidden behind sub-menus etc. and the way the forum feed has been given prominence is contrary to what I want from a webpage.

 

[angelraiter]

Please undo these changes! lets go back to the old layout.

There really is no reason to keep this thing the way it is. Toms is my home page. Every time I open my browser that's where it takes me. Now it just feels like I am looking at a totally different and awful website. I truly, honestly, hate this new site and all 3 betas.

The old layout was great cause I had at the left the reviews in chronological order and on the right the quick news.

The reviews are your main content, they should be placed so as to be featured and prominent on the page just like it used to be. Now the reviews feel like a navigation menu. :S

The news, for as great and interesting as they may be, are secondary content, they shouldn't be taking main stage on the layout.

 

[azcoyote]

Not a fan at all... Just keeps getting harder to find what I want... Stop moving the cheese...

 

[ewood]

Wow apparently I'm the only one who searched the toms home page for the "Tom's Hardware Classic" button...